A homeless man is left counting his blessings after he was allegedly shot four times by the police in St Mary on March 9.
When 46-year-old Maxwell Grant visited THE STAR yesterday, evidence of his injuries were still visible as he uses a belt as a makeshift sling for his broken arm which is partially hidden in a tattered cast.
According to Grant, he was shot by the policemen who told him that they hate mad people. He said the lawmen were called after he got into a heated argument with a female.
“Last year, the building where I was living burnt to the ground, so I was forced to the streets and I got dirty. I went to buy a food, and the woman just start cuss say she nuh like me and a deh so the argument start and police get called. When the police call me mad, me tell him say dem a homosexual,” he said.
“Him say him a go pepper spray me, and me tell him say me nuh do nothing to him fi him do that. Him send fi di spray and run me from side a him, and me ask him where me must go and him start spray me,” he added.
Grant said that things took a turn for the worse because after he was pepper sprayed, he started walking towards the police, and that’s when the police began firing.
“To be honest at the point, when he started to pepper spray me, I was walking towards him. Even when I got the third shot, I was still walking towards him. When he shot me the fourth time, I told him to just kill me and done because I couldn’t get the right to life,” he said.
Two marks on his left side showed where both bullets had entered and exited through his back. His right leg was also wounded and his upper left arm broken.
Even with four gunshot wounds, Grant said he found the strength to go to a near by pipe to cleanse his eyes of the burning sensation from the pepper spray.
Needed surgery
“The police then left the scene and a lady gave me a shirt to put on. A man then called back the police and told them that they could not leave me there, so they returned and took me to the hospital,” Grant said.
“Even when dem carry me go hospital, dem not even a tell the nurse dem say dem shot me. Dem just a say me is a mad man who a give we trouble. I was later transferred from the Annotto Bay Hospital to St Ann because they believed I may have needed surgery.”
The Constabulary Communication Unit (CCU) said they were unaware of the incident. THE STAR also tried to get a comment from the commanding officer for St Mary, Superintendent Bobbett Morgan, but we were unsuccessful.
Grant told THE STAR that he spent close to three weeks in hospital but was only visited by members of Independent Commission of Investigations (INDECOM) who told him that they were investigating the matter.
“I was discharged from the hospital with no medication. Not even painkillers, but one a di nurse want to give me ‘mad pill’. I asked her what proof she had that I was mad and if she or anyone else have ever evaluate me,” he said.
He said after he was discharged, he decided to make his way to Kingston, getting a ride along the way and walking for part of the journey.
He explained that he has also been trying to find shelter, but he didn’t have any luck when he went to the Poor Relief Department.
Grant, who has a good grasp of the English language, is adamant that he is not of unsound mind, and that he is only homeless. A firm believer of the Islamic faith, he stated that he is without a job because he is awaiting a deed poll from the Registrar General’s Department (RGD) to legally change his name to ‘Versuchanstart Ignorant’.
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